Happy 50th Birthday, BCS Theory!

The BCS Theory of Superconductivity was published 50 years ago in 1957, and it revolutionized the field of the quantum theory of solid. It besides being a landmark paper for nailing down the complete description of superconductivity, it also because one of the first papers to actually popularize the field-theoretic method in the study of materials/condensed matter. For many people, this is a more daring and wide-ranging impact of this paper.

The occasion was marked by http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2007/04/13/CampusNews/Nobel.Laureates.Praise.Profs.Superconductivity.Theory-2840628.shtml" [Broken], where Leon Cooper (the "C" in BCS and "Cooper pair") was honored.

Note a very interesting point made in that article that Einstein also tried to dabbled in solving the superconductivity phenomenon. Of course, he didn't get to do that. As Cooper mentioned, Einstein was handicapped because he didn't have the quantum theory of metals at that time to use. There is an interesting http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0612159" [Broken] of Einstein's efforts in superconductivity that appeared recently.

At the 2007 APS March Meeting, there was a session to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of the BCS Theory. There were 2 invited speakers to the session, and these talks tried to convey not only the importance of the theory within condensed matter physics, but also how it transcends into all of physics.

You can get the actual viewgraphs used in those presentations by clicking on the links.

"http://dcmp.bc.edu/images/APS2007Rowell.pdf" [Broken]" by John Rowell.